There is no more powerful place than the present moment.

I've spent most of my life battling just that - life.

It hasn't been since I've been able to live in the here and now that I've been able to feel peace. I strongly feel that when we took God out of our public schools we unnecessarily removed spirituality from our learning environment as well. Many of us know that feeling we receive when we walk into a spiritual place. An alternative healing shop, a temple, a spa, one's grandmother's home. We tend to feel relaxed, taken care of, and soothed. The most important lessons I've learned have happened within the walls of a yoga studio rather than a classroom. Yoga teaches many of the traits that seemingly successful people would require in order to help themselves help others and thus truly become successful. Yoga teaches humility and power (both physically and mentally). Yoga teaches that we have our strengths and weaknesses. We learn to push the boundaries where we are strong while respecting our weaknesses. Outdated teaching practices teaches us to overcome what's weak which in turn creates great stress on ourselves and society as a whole. Weakness can humble the spirit, opening our hearts to the empathy that the streets of Toronto occasionally lack. Acceptance, empathy and respect are among the lessons one learns when she's able breath through stressful positions in life. Keeping with and focusing on the breath, no matter how uncomfortable, is how we can learn to live with life rather than against it. We teach problem solving with the current curriculum. Sometimes the best solution to a problem is learning to live with it rather than the stress of trying to avoid it. It's only a problem if you want to solve it. With the development of contemporary teaching practices, we're always looking for holistic practices that help students truly understand. I strongly believe that there is no better classroom than the body, no better student than the mind and no better teacher then the present moment.

Namaste